However, for other games, a more sobering immortality awaits their player characters, in worlds left devoid of change, of discovery. Chrono is made eternal alongside a world ever changing, even if such change is simply a reversal of outcomes. Instead, it moves on forever, cycling on itself, the player able to experience the world endlessly in flow. With NG+, Chrono lives on forever, experiencing ending after ending, yet will never find himself in a world where time stops until the player themselves stop. However, what NG+ can also be seen as is an ultimate escape from something inevitable in games with save files: the exhaustion and death of game content. Narratively, this can be interpreted as the titular player character, Chrono, being sent back in time with new- found experience to defeat the main antagonist Lavos, allowing Chrono to explore new possibilities in the form of Chrono Trigger’s multiple endings. In the specific context of Chrono Trigger, NG+ is used to give players the opportunity to car- ry over their characters’ stats, items, and abilities into a fresh game state.
Pluses While the mechanics of replay bonuses may have circulated in video games before 1995, it wasn’t until the seminal release of Chrono Trigger that these mechanics would have a commonly ac- cepted name: New Game Plus, often shortened as NG+. Growing up isolated, no other videogame invoked loneliness in me stronger than the world left behind in Magic Pengel’s ending intentional or not. Not just for the 3D character drawing and stat system, as robust and intelligently designed as it may be, but for the feeling of emptiness it left with me after com- pleting the game. Despite the game having shortcomings in its core combat system, and its fairly simple storyline, it still manages to stand out as one of my favorite games.
It is a Playstation 2 RPG in which players take the role of a Doodler, artists who control paint fairies known as Pengel, and draw Doodles that come to life and engage in rock-paper-scissors based tournament com- bat. 39 Post-Game Saudade Childhood’s Endings Writing // Hughe Vang, UCSC ‘19 Illustrations // Reno Rivera, UCSC ‘19 “Please don’t be sad.” I was in elementary school when I first watched the ending of Magic Pengel: The Quest for Color.